conlangfandomcom-20200223-history
Alemarese
General Information Alemarese (natively Alemarrix /alemaˈʀiʃ/) is one of the most spoken languages of Patrona. It is the majority language in several nations (most notable Westos and Alemar) and taught as a lingua franca the world over. Phonology Consonants *The interdental nasal /n/ and partially the alveolar flap /r/ assimilate to the place of articulation of the following consonant. *The interdental nasal /n/ is pronounced as a nasalized interdental flap ɾ̟̃ in non-stressed and non-word-initial locations. *The uvular stop /q/ is pronounced as a glottal stop ʔ in the coda. *Whether or not /z/ is a separate consonant and its degree of separation from /s/ both differ from dialect to dialect. *The velar fricative is pronounced as a palatal ç after /i/ or /e/. *The labialized velar approximant /w/ has many origins and thus alternates with several other phonemes. It is the pronunciation of /l/ in the coda, and of /u/ in many diphthongs. Vowels *The close vowels /i/ and /u/ lower in response to a following /ŋ/, /k/, /g/, and /q/. *The mid vowels /e/ and /o/ lower when followed by a coda consonant and raise before another vowel or word-finally. *Conservative dialects have separate close-mid and open-mid vowels. *In some dialects, e and ɛ (and o and ɔ) contrast word-finally. *The front open vowel /a/ raises to æ before alveolar consonants in some dialects. */a/ backs to ɑ when adjacent to a uvular stop q. *Vowels gain a following semivocalic schwa before nasals in some dialects. *Any two adjacent vowels diphthongize. Stress Stress is typically on the penultimate vowel, unless the word ends with a consonant other than or ; however, stress is contrastive, and is thus marked in non-obvious locations by a grave accent. Writing System The Alphabet Alemarese is written in the Standard Chevin Alphabet (natively Ceaja Cevi). The letter ta dun is only used in loanwords. Transliteration * is pronounced /tʃ/ before front vowels. * is pronounced /dʒ/ before front vowels. * is pronounced /w/ in the coda. * is pronounced /w/ before back vowels. Digraphs *au /o/, ai /e/ *cuF /k/F, c(i/e)B /tʃ/B, cm /m/ word-initially *guF /g/F, g(i/e)B /dʒ/B *jr /ʀ/ word-initially, jC /C/ *ng /ŋ/, /ndʒ/ before front vowels *rr /ʀ/ *sp /ʃp/, st /ʃt/ *tt /tː/ *veB /β/B, vuF /w/F Native Collation c, a, j, d, g, u, q, p, b, o, h, v, e, s, z, t, l, f, i, y, ð, r, n, m, þ, x Nouns ex. otta "tongue, language, speech" Third declension nouns typically end in a stressed syllable in the nominative singular. The addition of the endings bring about predictable alternations of certain final consonants. These do not occur in recent loanwords. # Only in the instrumental singular. # unstressedFew nouns are irregular, and if a noun is irregular, it is very predictable. For example, nouns ending in ''-ea'' or ''-aya'' in the singular become ''-eye'' and ''-ae'' in the plural, respectively. An example of a truly irregular noun is oai "cloud". Pronouns Nominative pronouns Accusative pronouns Dative pronouns Genitive pronouns Possessive pronouns Interrogative pronouns Adjectives Determiners Article Demonstratives Quantifiers Quantifiers include: ispe (all), be (many), tlone (some), and five (few) Verbs There are four conjugation classes based on four thematic vowels: a''', '''e, u''', and '''o. Nonpast tense '-a verbs' '-e verbs' '-u verbs' '-o verbs' emoc -to be Recent tense Thematic vowel + tshe following suffixes (stressed on the thematic vowel except in the 3p). '-a and -e verbs' '-u and -o verbs' Direct remote tense Indirect remote tense Thematic vowel + the following suffixes (stressed on the thematic vowel except in the 3p). Eventive tense Thematic vowel + the following suffixes (stressed on the thematic vowel except in the 3p). Future The future is indicated by an auxiliary "jre", which is placed before a verb in the active participle. *ex. Jri oder lo "I will give it", *''Seo jrera oder lo'' "I was going to give it". Participles Vocabulary Numbers Though Patronans have ten fingers in total, the most common base is 8 (octal) which was spread by Alemarese and Barejine-speakers across most of Patrona. Typically, fingercounting starts with the thumbs out, the first finger being the index, etc. *Ordinals are formed with <-me>. First and second are formed suppletively (veit and drezip). *Fractions are formed with <-aj>. Half is suppletive and quarter is irregular (foli and meraj). *In both, only the last word of the number receives the ending. If the last word in a fraction is "one" (e. g. 21) then it is rendered as veit. Colors Patronans can't see blue, so they have no need of words to distinguish it, greatly shrinking their color vocabulary. *cindi ˈtʃiə̯ndi: dark red, purple, brown *god ˈgɔd: light red, pink, orange *plauve ˈpl̟ɔβɛ: white, yellow *xab ˈʃab: light green, chartreuse, cyan *varze ˈwaɾzɛ: dark green, teal *eriti ɛˈɾit̟i: black, blue *hoici ˈɔjtʃi: gray Days of the Week The Patronan week is only six days long. #deruax- Sunday #lameax- Loveday #cavecax- Thoughtday #veverax- Fastday #mindax- big Moonday #jiliax- little Moonday Directions Conjunctions and (ð), either or (iy...iy...), and/or (ài), but (no) Important Phrases Swadesh